This Time
by RiteOnTime
Summary: Annabeth comes up with a way to get Percy back when he makes them both late for school. Rated M for nudity. Percy POV.


**A/N: This story is something of a headcanon of mine. After Gaea is defeated, I think Annabeth would stay with the Jackson-Blofis'. Also, I see Annabeth as being a _major_ tease and Percy just does not know what to do about it.**

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Sometimes, being the son of Poseidon is a real pain in the ass. Especially when you feel like you're never going to wake up and you have to leave for school in half an hour and you have to take a shower before then. And when I'm tired enough, I'll sometimes forget to let myself get wet and Annabeth doesn't really appreciate it when that happens.

Unfortunately, it happened this morning. With a groan I realized that this was going to be yet another morning where Annabeth and I would be late for school _again_ because of my godsforsaken genetics. It would be at least another five minutes for me to wash up, which definitely cut in to Annabeth's needed time in the bathroom. But once the water started hitting me, I began to wake up a little more and I could hear the sound of Paul leaving the apartment, since he has to be at school earlier than I do.

Luckily enough for Annabeth and I, Paul and my mom had been pretty cool about letting Annabeth stay with us. After the end of the giant war, we both had some issues with being apart, especially at night. When we got back to camp from Greece, Chiron had tried to keep us from sleeping together, but our nightmares had been so bad and our screams so loud that our first night home convinced him that our sanity was more important than our modesty. Apparently, my mom agreed, because it had been her idea to bring Annabeth with us back to our apartment and it had also been her idea to convince her parents to let her stay. Then she had been the one to suggest that Annabeth go to Goode with me and there was no way I was going to complain.

Although Annabeth and I had lost a little bit of our sanity in Tartarus, I definitely did not lose my inane ability to annoy her. Three loud knocks on my bathroom door brought me out of my reverie. "Percy! Hurry up!" Annabeth yelled from the other side. It's not like it was my fault that I couldn't get wet unless I wanted to, and she knows what I'm like in the mornings. That didn't stop her from getting mad every time I took a longer shower, even though it technically shouldn't be considered my fault.

"I forgot about the son of the sea god thing again!" I called back. I could just imagine her look of frustration and even though I hated when that look was directed at me, I couldn't help but smile. She couldn't actually _do_ anything to me right now anyways, and by the end of the school day she'd probably forget.

"We're going to be late _again_," she complained, just like every time this happened.

"Sorry!" I called back while lathering shampoo into my hair. I figured she would probably just go read the newspaper or something, so I was not expecting to hear the bathroom door creak or for the shower curtain to suddenly open and close as Annabeth got in with me.

Both my hands immediately reached to cover my crotch as Annabeth pushed me around so we could switch places. The only thing I could think was _fuck_. I didn't think that we had gotten to the stage of the relationship where we were okay seeing each other naked because I had never seen her _naked_ before. Sure, I'd seen different parts at different times, but we hadn't even had _sex_ and now she was just flaunting herself in front of me.

When we'd started dating, I'd wanted to take things slow because there was no way in Hades I was going to screw anything up. But once we got back from Greece the physical aspect of our relationship became more intense, which was probably due to the fact that the emotional part of our relationship was even more extreme. Sometimes I felt like we were playing catch-up, but the fun kind.

Yet there was no doubt in my mind that Annabeth and I were certainly not at the point where we would be comfortable being naked together in a confined space like this. At least that's what _I _thought. That's not to say that I wasn't enjoying it. I was. Big time. I couldn't take my eyes off of her; head tossed back and chest pushed out as she washed her hair. Never mind the fact that there was shampoo running down my face because I still hadn't rinsed it out.

I didn't know how long I was staring, but after what seemed like no time at all, she opened the shower curtain and wrapped herself in a towel before heading back into my room. Gods, she was going to kill me. With all the willpower I could muster, I tried to push Annabeth's image out of my head and focus on finishing my shower. In the space of what could not have been more than a minute, I was out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, and walking into my room. My empty room.

Annabeth's towel was on my bed and the bedroom door was ajar. Was getting dressed ridiculously fast something that children of Athena could do? If so, I was not happy about it.

Several minutes later, after I'd gotten dressed and hung up the towels, I went in search of breakfast. On my way to the kitchen, I passed Annabeth and immediately I started thinking about the shower. I could feel my cheeks turning bright red and I could've sworn that she smirked at me.

"Morning, Seaweed Brain," she said on her way back to my room. I didn't trust my voice enough to respond and instead hoped that my mom wouldn't be in the kitchen, or if she was, that she wouldn't say anything about the fact that I was blushing.

Almost a half hour later, Annabeth and I had just left my apartment building and were walking to school. Aside from our interaction on my way to the kitchen, we hadn't spoken and it didn't seem like that was going to change anytime soon. My blush hadn't gone away, either, and I was trying to come up with a good excuse for it in case someone asked. I wished I could ask Annabeth for an idea, but seeing as this was her fault in the first place I wasn't really motivated.

"Next time you should just take a picture," she said to break the silence. I looked over at her and she was _smirking_. She thought it was _funny_. Sometimes it could be so hard for me to keep up.

"Ha-ha," I replied, not really finding it funny but not knowing what else to say. We lapsed into silence again as I thought about it. Gods, this blush would _never_ go away. Annabeth laughed next to me.

"What's so funny?" I asked her somewhat annoyed.

"You've adjusted yourself like five times in the time we've been walking," she said while pointedly looking at my crotch. As if the blush weren't embarrassing, I didn't need to be subconsciously touching myself all day.

"Well maybe if you'd just let me finish my shower," I grumbled, reminding myself to keep my hands in my jacket pockets and make sure they stayed there.

"You were taking forever and I didn't want to be late!" The smirk was back again. There was a reason for it. There had to be another reason why she thought this was so funny.

"Was it supposed to be some kind of punishment?" She shrugged and that's when I knew that she had gotten into the shower with me on purpose so that this would happen. Gods, she _was_ trying to kill me.

"Hey, you should know by now that there are repercussions for your actions," she replied in answer to my question. I muttered under my breath about how unfair she was being and I guess she heard me because she laughed again, though she did take one of my hands and laced her fingers through mine.

"Next time just yell at me or something," I said as we neared the school.

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Where's the fun in that?" she asked, smiling at me and raising an eyebrow. Annabeth really was going to be the death of me.


End file.
